Kate J. Armstrong - Nightbirds

NANCY PAULSEN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York

First published in the United States of America by Nancy Paulsen Books,
an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2023

Text copyright 2023 by Kate J. Armstrong

Map illustrations copyright 2023 by Sveta Dorosheva

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Armstrong, Kate J., author.

Title: Nightbirds / Kate J. Armstrong.

Description: New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023. | Series: Nightbirds; book 1 | Summary: In Simta, the magic of women is outlawed, but four girls with unusual powers have the chance to change it allProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022037458 (print) | LCCN 2022037459 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593463277 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593463284 (ebook)

Subjects: CYAC: MagicFiction. | FriendshipFiction. | Fantasy. | Fantasy fiction. lcgft | Novels. lcgft

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.A7479 Ni 2023 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.A7479 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037458

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037459

Ebook ISBN 9780593463284

Edited by Stacey Barney

Cover art 2023 by Aykut Aydodu

Cover design by Jessica Jenkins

Design by Suki Boynton, adapted for ebook by Michelle Quintero

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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CONTENTS

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To my mom,
who makes everything feel magical

PROLOGUE

THE MAGIC IN A KISS

A LL HIS LIFE, young lord Teneriffe Maylon has heard whispers. They circled the edges of ballrooms and slithered through hushed conversations over port. The Nightbirds will change your fortunes, the whispers promised. Their magic can be yours with just a kiss.

If you can find them, that is, and meet their requirements. They are a privilege hes about to pay quite dearly for.

At last, Tenny is allowed to remove his blindfold. For a moment, all he can make out is the bright burn of candles painting circles on the deeply purple walls. Then a woman perched behind a desk comes into focus, wearing a gown of fine velvet and a darkly feathered mask. It shrouds her face, mesh stretched over the eyeholes. He knows her only by her code name: Madam Crow.

She holds out a gloved hand, letting it hover. Your payment.

Tennys fingers shake a little as he extends the string of rubies. That shake is what gets him into trouble at the krellen tablesits such an obvious tell. Tenny is used to seeing money leave him, but it usually flows in the form of coins, not treasures pilfered from his dames jewel box. The shame of it tastes like the last dregs of bitter wine. He is tired, nerves tattered from avoiding his rather nefarious creditor and his sires certain wrath if he finds out about his sons growing debts. Tennys had a poor run of luck, is all, but tonight, that all changes.

Madam Crow winds the rubies around her fingers. The dark gems seem to swallow the light.

And your secret? she demands.

Sweat slides down Tennys collar. The jewels are payment enough, dont you think?

She arches a brow. Secrets protect my girls better than gems, however pretty. I will have your secret, or youll have nothing at all.

Tenny sighs and hands her the note he wrote that afternoon, explaining it was he who took his dames rubies. He threw in the extent of his debts and the dalliance with his familys maid for good measure. Its a risk, to put these secrets into Madam Crows keeping, but he knew money wouldnt be enough to get him through this door.

The Madam reads his secrets, then folds them up again. She holds a stick of purplish wax over a candle flame until it drips. His pulse picks up as she pours it onto the papers folds and slides it toward him. He presses his House Maylon ring into the wax, marking its contents as authentic. Ensuring he will never tell a soul of what he sees tonight.

That business done, the Madam smiles. Which Nightbird are you seeking?

Tenny licks his lips. A few of his friends have boasted vaguely about their time with a Nightbird, but the magic they spoke of seemed too fanciful to credit. Wild tales to trap desperate fools like him.

The Madam lays down three cards on the desk between them. They look like krellen cards, but instead of mythical beasts and kings, they hold finely drawn birds.

No Nightbirds magic is the same, she explains. They are each a different vintage. The Goldfinch will help you change your feathers, making you look like someone else. The Ptarmigan gives the gift of camouflagenear invisibility. The Nightingale will let you manipulate someones emotions, smoothing them in whatever direction you desire.

Tennys mouth has gone dry. All magic is illegal in the Eudean Republic, but this kind is also incredibly rare. Hes tasted plenty of alchemical magicthe kind thats mixed into cocktails in Simtas speakeasies and ground into powders in alchemists back rooms. Such concoctions will let you speak another language for a handful of minutes or make your skin glow in the dark. But a Nightbirds gift is purer, and so much more precious. It is what those alchemists and barkeeps try so hard to imitate.

The gift only tends to linger for a few uses, the Madam says. So choose wisely.

Tenny is tempted by the Nightingale, who might help him sway the outcome at the krellen tables, but he doesnt want to cheat his way out of his trouble. He wants to win his fortune back by himself.

He points to the Goldfinch.

The Madams smile turns sharp. As you wish.

She gives him the rules: no lasciviousness, no demands, no pointed questions. He is too nervous to take in more than a few words. Then the blindfold goes back on, and someone leads him down a hall that smells of lilies. Thick carpet gives under his boots as slender fingers tug him by the wrist.

After a few twists and turns, they stop, and the fingers release him. Paper shuffles, the covert sound of a card being shoved under a door.

Sweat dampens Tennys cuffs.

Ah... how should I address her? he asks the darkness.

There is a pause, then a scratchy male voice that makes him jump.